Non-confidence vote delays Charest’s visit to France

QUEBEC — Premier Jean Charest, who planned to leave on Sunday for a week-long official visit to France, has delayed his departure until Wednesday, the day a Parti Quebecois non-confidence motion in his government will be voted.

Quebec and France have had alternating first minister’s visits since the 1970s, when then-premier Rene Levesque started the practice with his French counterpart, Raymond Barre.

Charest is to meet French Prime Minister Francois Fillon and President Nicolas Sarkozy in a shortened official visit next Thursday and Friday.

International Relations Minister Monique Gagnon-Tremblay will fill in for Charest at events scheduled Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday in Paris and Strasbourg.

The PQ calculated that with Charest, Gagnon-Tremblay and Industry Minister Clement Gignac away on the official visit, the government had a margin of only two votes.

That would leave open the possibility that if three more Liberals were absent when the vote took place, the government could be defeated.